“There is the falsely mystical view of art that assumes a kind of supernatural inspiration, a possession by universal forces unrelated to questions of power and privilege or the artist's relation to bread and blood. In this view, the channel of art can only become clogged and misdirected by the artist's concern with merely temporary and local disturbances. The song is higher than the struggle.

Adrienne Cecile Rich (born May 16, 1929, in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American poet, essayist and feminist. She has been called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the [20th] century"